


A Dog's Comfort

by ladysche



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-02 19:03:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8679775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladysche/pseuds/ladysche
Summary: Just a quick little drabble about Alistair's love of dogs. More feelsy than that may sound like, as it goes into his childhood. There is some mention of mistreatment of children as Alistair was treated poorly as a child.





	

_ “Please, I don’t want to be out in the cold! It’s dark and scary, and I don’t like it!” _

My pleas fell on deaf ears, it seemed.  She muttered under her breath that no son of her husband’s could possibly be so cowardly and weak, pointing to the kennels where I was to sleep. I did not understand what she meant. I was not the Arl’s son. He had no son, not yet.

Just a stableboy, nothing more. She claimed that the Arl treated me too kindly, that he coddled me. I wondered how that could be, when he allowed her to give such orders. But I did not argue, not out loud. It was not my place.

The dogs, at least, were kind to me. They saw how I shivered and moved to surround me, so that their body heat could warm me.

The next night I did not complain when she sent me back there to sleep. The dogs brought me more comfort than anyone in the castle did. Such kind and gentle creatures. Far better than people, of that I was sure. Perhaps this was where I truly belonged.

On a bent knee, the Arl spoke to me one day perhaps a year later. His voice was soft, apologetic. And so I was a mere stableboy no longer. A bastard child. Not his bastard, no. But the son of the King. I was angry, frustrated. Why had the King abandoned me? Was I not good enough, not worthy of being acknowledged? But I knew the answer was no. For I had never been good enough before, never wanted. Only the dogs ever yearned for my presence.

It was a secret, though. He told no one, not even the Arlessa. And with her newborn son, she was even more frightened than before that I would be some kind of threat. To ease her worries, the Arl agreed to send me away.

And so I left Redcliffe, left everything I had ever known. The most upsetting, of course, was that I would never see the dogs again.

Dogs were not to enter the Chantry. Those were long, tiresome years. I was not well liked by any of the sisters, nor the instructors. I was too wild, or too meek. Too foolish, too stupid. Each one had their reasons. Yet even still I was not allowed to leave. Becoming a Templar was served to me not as an option or a choice, but as something expected of me. I would be good for nothing else.

The Templar are like the Chantry’s dogs. I’ve come to see that now. The Lyrium keeps them on a leash, strong and ready to fight if only given a cause. But they are not truly loyal. Not like the dogs I once knew, the ones who cared for me. A Templar seemed to care for no one but himself. I did not want to be like that.

Were it not for Duncan, I would have had no choice. But he gave me one. And I chose to become a Warden. To fight for good, to protect those who could not protect themselves. To care for others like those dogs had cared for me.

Do you know how much it meant to me, when you took in that mabari? I finally felt as though I could repay the dogs for what they did all those years ago. He’s a silly pup, isn’t he? But that’s not such a bad thing. We have so few reasons to smile these days. Thanks to him, though, we always have at least one.

No matter what we go through—the dark, the cold— or what frightening creatures we see on our journey…  we’ll always have comfort. At least, that’s what I think.  


End file.
